Page 23 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 26
P. 23
Community
and it’s sacred to the Digo tribe of manner of insects, spiders, and eco-friendly buildings right
the Mijikenda community on the sometimes millipedes. But as we in the heart of the so-called
coast of Kenya. kept cleaning the place daily, the rural areas. So, while those in
crawlers have reduced to some the big cities are talking about
In sharp contrast to the Savanna extent. sustainable development in over-
where we lived in Tuala, which priced conferences, those in the
is mostly dry and dusty but green Kinondo Village rural areas are the ones using
when it rains, the Kinondo forest When we first moved to our sustainable materials for their
landscape is constantly green, friend’s house in Kinondo village, homes. The forest house we
lush, cool, and quite comfortable. we mentioned that we were currently live in is built using
And because the forest itself is looking for a place to stay. He limestone and also covered with
just two minute’s walk from the then told us about the house in the a thatched roof, which is a natural
ocean, the wind from the ocean sacred forest. All arrangements material. The bricks are laid using
often makes the forest cool and were quickly made for us to take cement mortar and plastered using
breezy. The forest features about up the vacant house and while cement, but we are looking into
two thousand indigenous trees, we were awaiting renovations ways to work with limestone and
lots of baboons, red squirrels, to be made (it was damaged due no cement. From our research, it
colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, to disuse because of COVID is very possible.
hornbills, and lots of other restrictions), I walked around the
creatures like insects and rodents. village several times and several Where are the police?
So, it has become normal to go things that caught my attention I also noticed there was no
to bed to the sound of insects were the clean air, healthy green police presence or even a single
humming all night in the forest spaces, massive amounts of fruit police station in the area. I asked
and then wake up in the morning trees and peace with which people our host about it and he said it
to the sound of monkeys playing relate with themselves. People was a deliberate request by the
in the trees nearby or even on the still know how to say hello to community leaders. Why? There
thatched roof of our forest house. one another in the morning. I also is no need for it because the
It’s one big vibrant ecosystem noticed that all the houses were community leaders know how
of biodiversity and it is lovely. I built using limestone, which is to resolve issues among their
must not forget to mention that a natural building material that people and it’s considered taboo
right in the house, which is two they dig from the ground right among the Digo tribe to involve
rooms, you get to interact with all on the building site. Talk about external systems (e.g. police) in
their affairs. We’ve been here
Watch the video we did here for more than a month and not a
single crime has been committed.
Does that sound like the Africa
we walked away from in search
of modernity? I bet it does. We
need to return to the African way
of wisdom and truth.
ISSUE 26 | APRIL 2024 23
